June Updates - Last as a Missionary

June 3

What up?! everything is goin great out here. Super weird I only have five weeks left, I think. I'm now serving in an area called 대신. It's pretty lit because we have Nampo in our area. But it is a struggling Branch. There is only about seven people that come to church even though this used to be a huge Ward back in the day. Just lots of drama. Super sad but all we can do is keep working on it.

My comp is named YongHo Lee. We served on Jeju island at the same time and I knew his older brother when he served in this mission. He's an awesome guy. It's super weird that I only had two Korean companions my whole mission. My first and my last.

We white-washed into this area so we are starting everything from scratch. We got a referral from some other Elders and met with a guy in the hospital that we are now teaching. We also teach him English but it's super hard because he knows none and he's old but oh well.

Not to much else to share. Hope ya'll have a great week.

June 17

Three weeks left. we had a super good week. on Wednesday we went down to Nampo and did a district proselyting activity. We set up two rows of chairs facing each other and invited people to come do English conversation to get more people to our English class. it was super funny.

Yesterday we had Busan Stake Sports Day. They rented out a gym and some soccer fields and we spent the day up there. there was also little league flag football games going on on the fields right next to us which was super weird to see here.

We played soccer against all the old men in the Stake and smoked 'em. then we went inside and did arm wrestling and races. i didnt do the arm wrestling because i didn't want to hurt anyone haha j/k. but I did do the race and found out im super out of shape. I think I pulled something. but it was great to see all the members from the other wards I have served in.

I'm pumped to see you guys in a few short weeks. have a good one.

March Updates

March 4th

With Elder Cantarero in Gwangan

Today is transfer day so I'm on the train right now heading to Deagu. At Deagu we will meet up with some other missionaries and I'll leave with them to Busan. I was super surprised when I got the transfer call. Especially since I'd only been in Gimcheon for one transfer. So I was shocked when the AP told me I'd be going down to Gwangan (not sure if that's how you spell it ), in Busan.

I'm pretty pumped though. My comp will be Elder Cantarero. My homie from El Salvador. And I will be in a four-man house there. The other Elders will be Elder Stout, who was my companion on Jeju, and Elder Evaga. So is gone be lit.

Even though I wasn't in Gimcheon for very long it was still pretty sad leaving the members. Not too much else went on this week. Should be more interesting next week.

Oh and one of the members went and watched Black Panther and told us that the part they filmed in Busan, part of it was in Gwangan, where I'm moving to right now, and most of it in Nampo, where I lived for four months.

Hope you all hab da great week. I rub you or...

March 11th

Stretchin with the ladies

Super fast week. Gwangan is a super sick area and it's a lot nicer to have all the other missionaries super close. Our house is super fun. Every tuesday we have our service project and in Gwangan we go to a house packed full of old ladies that just chill there all day. We lead them in some streching activities which is hilarious. Then they give us strawberries and soda. Its super random.

We have been meeting with our recent convert a lot. His name is JeSon Lee and he speaks like twenty different languages. Every time we meet with him he is just getting back from a Russian or Chinese or Thai or some other language class. He also speaks to Elder Cantarero in Spanish and its like fluent.

On Wednesday I went on exchange to Haeundae, which is like the richest part of Busan. While we were walking around we saw Rolls Royce's and Lambos drivin around like its nothin. It was fun; also because all four of us Elders in the house are in the same MTC group.

I really dont have too much to write about today. this week flew by and I cant remember anything from it. and I'm 20 years old today so I feel like an old man. gonna need a walker or a cane pretty soon.

I think we're goin down to play soccer on the beach today. idk. but I hope yall have a great week.

March 18th

Chillin at the meat buffet

Shupa past week. deah ah so many peoplrs in Gwangan. We been hab the lot of fun dis week. last the zone went down to Haeundae for my birthday. We planned to go down there and then look for somewhere to eat, but all the buffets where either closed or too expensive. So we all went to McDonald's. But that was Gucci. They brought cakes and candles that we lit up in the McDonald's. Someone also brought the confetti popper things and kept poppin them off inside and everyone was sorta getting annoyed. But we are foreigners so no one cares. Then we went down to the beach and played soccer. good times.

We had interviews a few days ago that went really well. President Joeng is a funny guy. But I still dont know when I am comming home haha. And we have facebook and kakao talk now so its gonna be super useful here in korea.

Our recent convert came back from seoul yesterday and came to church. He's such a homie. Also we have a guy from Ethiopia that comes to church every week. Im still super bad at translating.
I dont really have to much to write. I can never remember what I did during the week. All the weeks sort of just blend together so I dont know if I've said it or not. 

March 25th

Dunking on fools

The weeks here are starting to go by really fast. maybe because my time is winding down. I cant remember too much that happened this week. We mostly have been looking for investigators. And working with our recent convert.

We had zone conference on sunday which was good. I had to speak which I hate doing at these meeting but it went pretty good. We also had to do a proselyting activity in the pouring rain. It was raining so bad you could barely see in front of you. But it was still fun cuz I got to go with elder stagg.

We are about to head out and go down to Nampo with some other elders. Not exactly sure what we are going to be doing down there but we will see. Hope you all have a great week and do activities and fun stuff and stuff.

Love,
Elder Mica Matua

Playing some screen baseball

Enjoying life in Korea with the flat mates

That Gwangan lyfe

February Updates

With our good friend Jafar

4 February
Good week. We met with a few people and got punked by a bunch. We spent a lot of time calling old numbers out of the member book. Because it is still super cold, and there is not many people on the gimcheon streets.

I went on exchange with the Andong Elders after district meeting last week. We got back into their area at about 5pm since it is take so long to get there. I went with Elder Vanwart who is in his third transfer. He's from Idaho and played rugby so I got to hear all about his team who is top 25 in the nation LOL. But it was a really good exchange. We also met with their recent convert who is about 13 years old.

Yesterday we met with our friends from Iran again. They are literally my favorite people in this whole area. They brought a new friend this time named Jafar. But Koreans can't make the F-sound so he introduces himself here as Japan. He is 50 and has a wife, kids and grandkids back in Iran that really want him to come back but he has to make money so he has been slaving over here for over a year. Our meeting went really good tho. I taught them Korean, they taught me some more Farsee, and then we talked about Jesus. It will be easier once we get pamphlets in their language.

Tomorrow we will have zone conference down in Hogye, my old area, so im pretty pumped about that. Other than that not too much else goin on. Its cold.

Have a great week.

The District and friends in our tradition Korean garb

11 February
Busy week. We had zone conference on tuesday which was combined with Ulsan zone so we had to all the way down to hogye. But it was super fun riding the train down there as a zone. And it was also super cool to be back in me old area.

The conference was ehh but they did tell us we would be getting Facebook and Kakao talk which is pretty chill. Then after we all went to a meat restaurant and almost put the place out of business.

Wednesday morning I went down to Gumi for an exchange with Elder Winter until Thursday morning and then went from there strait to Andong for an exchange with Elder Koo Chanwoo until friday afternoon. While I was in Andong we went to the sister's investigators junior high graduation. So many koreans. It was pretty funny. The students danced to psy's gentleman. One of the sisters from our mission who went home three weeks ago also came. And it was a good thing we all went because the girls parents didnt show up. Apperently the mom ledt years ago and the dad comes home only every couple of days so she basically lives alone.

On Saturday we went and met with a less active that week meet every week. He is about 80 years old and lives by himself in like a junk yard. Its strait up the trap. His house looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. We just go in, make sure he's still alive, check his food and water, share a message, and then try to teach him how to use his smart phone. But its no use. Its like trying to teach a 4-year-old how to operate a space shuttle. He's still trying to figure out how to get out of an app. Instead of pressing the home button he clicks the lock button on the side and turns it off. Then sits there for a good 30 seconds and then turns it back on. And gets frustrated when he see's that the app is still open. He'll do that five or six times before his pinky finger accidentally hits the home button and gets out of the app. It was funny the first two visits, now I just feel bad.

Yesterday we met witb our Iranian friends Hasan, Saeed, and Jafar again. They are always super fun. They facetimed their families in Iran for us to talk to them so I got to use my limited Pharsi. I have come to realize that Pharsi and English are a thousand times easier than korean.

We are on the train right now on our way to Susung to buy some Hanbok, Korean traditional clothes. We have to wear them on lunar new year this week.

Hope all you little riderz have a great week.

Hiking with the Elders for P-Day

18 February
This past week was lunar new year so all the Koreans were celebrae'in. We were too. We all went down to susung last week to buy some HanBok, Korean traditional clothing. They are usually a few hundred dollars. If they are really nice they can be over a thousand. So all the missionaries went down to the market and got second hand ones for ten dollars. They're probably more like fifth or sixth hand but it's chill. Mine smells like an old Korean man even tho I drenched it in febrez. Our whole district wore them to district meeting and then after we went and did district proselyting in them. We stood in the middle of downtown gumi and danced around and played games with people walking past. The we would ask if they wanted to take a picture with us and instead of using their phone we would use our camera, then get their contact info in order to just "send them the picture??."

Then on Thursday I went on exchange with elder Smith from west Jordan. Super cool kid. We met with our friends from Iran and most of the lesson we tried to figure out Saeed's age in Korean age, American age, and Iran age. It was super hard because they use a different calendar in Iran. It's not even 2018 there, it's like 1396. The months are different too.

After we met with them we went to the branch presidents house for dinner along with the sisters. The sisters also made us wear our HanBok to dinner so the branch president and his wife made us do a Korean ritual thingy where we bowed to them and others stuff. I had no idea what was going on.

Then on Friday our whole district went up to Andong wearing our HanBok for another district proslyteing sesh. Andong is two hours away so we went to the andong bus terminal at 7 to get back before 9, but when  we got there they said the bus is all sold out and the next one isn't until 8:30. So we took that one and had to sleep over at the Gumi elders house.

We are on the train right now headed down to Susung to go on a zone hike do I cant send pictures right now but I'll do it later today.

This is what my suit looks like now - gah!

25 February
his week actually went by pretty fast. On Monday we went down to Susung again to go hiking with all the elders in the zone. I am super out of shape. We went with some american soldiers. The Susung elders cover the korean ward and also the military branch so they invited some of the members to come with us. There was a restaurant at the top of the mountain that we ate at and saw some korean guy almost fall to his death. Luckily he only fell about ten feet and landed on an edge, if he been just a little bit further right he would have missed the edge and splattered in front of all of us. Then some American guy ran up there and started yellin at us cuz he thought we were messin around and made him fall or somethin??....

Tuesday we had interviews with president Jeong which was good. Every transfer when we have interviews we have to prepare what they call certification. We must prepare memorized scriptures and all the bullet points from the PMG and then teach a lesson with them to the mission presidents wife while our companion is in his interview. I basically kill it every time.

Then on Wednesday I went on exchange with Elder Winter from my MTC district. It was pretty lit. Did our service project with father gabiel and washed some dishes for old people. We also ate a ton of pizza school pizza. We had district meeting on thursday and we have to watch a bunch of videos about online missionary work. We are getting facebook and kakao talk soon so they are teaching us how to do proselyting and lessons over facebook. It should be really useful here in korea.

Friday we had english class which is always fun. We found out that one of the korean ladies that comes to our english class is teaching a less active american member in our branch piano. Also sister kang nari came because she was on exchange with our sisters and it was so wierd because we were trainees together in dogye and now she leaves next week. and the sisters in my MTC group left last transfer.

We had a good day at church yesterday. Then the branch presidents family had us over for dinner. He's a super funny guy. He started playing The Script super lound on his speakers, even during the prayer... thats about it. this week is the last week of the transfer so we'll see what happens next week.

Hope you all have the great week

New Updates: November 12 - December 3

November 12 

With Elder Stout overlooking our area in Jeju

We just got back from a place called sunrise peak with an investigator. His name is Mr. Campbell. an american with a Bulgarian wife and Korean daughter who has been living in Korea for the past like 30 years. They were nice enough to take us to sunrise peak with them which is a huge crater about an hour away on the east side of the island.

This week was really good. Last Monday we went down to Jeju city to hang out with the other missionaries. We went down to the beach and played soccer for a little until Elder Lee kicked the ball into the ocean. We got some fishers to try to fish it out for us but it didn't work. They kept telling us to swim out and get it but we explained that we cant. We ended up using the emergency life saver tube thing. The circle thing that floats and has a rope attached to it so you can throw it out to people. We used that and eventually saved our ball.

We met with a few of our investigators this week. The one that came to church last week is scheduled to be baptized on the 26th so hopefully he will be ready.  We met with our Filipino friends at their house with brother yoon. They cooked us some filipino food then we invited them to the ward dinner the next day. It was funny when we walked in with them because no one know they were coming.

In church yesterday the member who was teaching in 3rd hour made me and Elder Stout get up in front of the ward and do a proselyting role play. It was so awkward, but it was funny. He made some of the youth get up and help us. Also James Bond came to church which is always fun. It has been awesome serving on Jeju and I hope I get to stay here a while.

November 19

Stocked up on tangerines

Another great week on Jeju. Its starting to get a lot colder around here but its nothing like Utah. On Thursday we went over to one of our investigators farms and picked tangerine for a couple ours. It was just me, Elder Stout, and a bunch of old Korean ladies. They would always yell at us if we picked any that were to small or too big or the wrong color, but it was fun.

Also every Friday we go over and half dinner with our Filipino friends at their house. They all live together in a small house on the work site. There is also some Indonesian guys who live right next store and came over to eat as well. They cook us some Filipino food and then we teach them a lesson right before we leave. The stake/district president, Brother Voon, also comes with us and uses his very basic English to communicate with them.

Yesterday I had to speak in sacrament... again. But I think it went well. And then we went to Jeju city for a social media meeting. And James Bond begged to come with us so he rode with us down there. and back. Then last night while me and Elder Stout were walking down the street in downtown, we walked past a tied up plastic bag that started moving. We went back to it and it had stopped moving so we kicked it and it just started floppin around. Neither of us were down to open it up to see what was inside though. Probably a human hand. J/K. But yeah good week. Sogwipo is doing great and the work is movin. Hope you all have a great week.

November 26

With our buddy, James Bond

Pretty fast week. We had zone conference on Saturday which was a lot different than all my other zone conferences since there are only 8 missionaries on the island. President Jeong popped in on us for a surprise house inspection Friday night. Luckily our house was clean. We did get roasted for the 8-XL pizza boxes we had ordered though. Then the AP's slept over and we all stuffed in the back of presidents car for an hour ride to Jeju.

Thursday we played basketball with our Filipino friends and our branch president. We had to find an indoor court since the Filipino's said its too cold outside. We found a navy base with some nice courts and we will start playing weekly with them.

When elder stout and I went looking for the navy base the day before we were stopped by a korean lady that lectured us for thirty minutes about how evil the navy base is and how it needs to be taken out.

We are preparing Soeqwipo's Christmas party which is in a few weeks. Are branch president gave us the assignment and when we asked what we should use for decorations he just told us to use the ones from Halloween. He also asked me and elder stout to perform something but we have no idea what to do so that will be interesting.

Chillin in our flat

The branch here is doing awesome. Its a little bit hard finding people here but we have recieved some awesome refferals. We have two weeks left in the transfer and hopefully I can do another on the island.

December 3

Really fast week. I cant even remember anything that happened. But saturday night our gas ran out so we had to take freezing cold showers sunday morning and cook all our food at the church with james bond. We have also been sitting at home all morning waiting for thd gas guy to come on a p day.

But it was a good week. The old couple that we have been teaching came back from seoul so we have been ablw to meet with them again. Unfortunately they will be moving to seoul at the end of the month.

Finding in our beautiful area

We are getting ready for our Christmas party which will be very... interesting. But helps that we just got a new ward mission leader who is awesome.

This is the last week of the transfer so we will see what happens on Saturday. hope you all have a great week.

What the....? C'mon McDonald's 

Catching up: September 24 - October 15

September 24, 2017

Pretty average week. Don't have too many investigators right now so we do a lot of proselyting. One of the only meetings we had this week was yesterday after church with our friend Chang. He is a Chinese guy that moved here a little bit ago and can't speak any Korean. He ordered some beef from America and barbecued it at his house for us. We had a great time but he was really confused why we wouldn't drink with him. The word of wisdom is definitely going to be the hardest part for him.

Besides that not too much else going on. We haven't heard any more threats from North Korea lately but then again we don't really hear anything. Hope ya'll have a great week.

October 1, 2017

Pretty good week. We got to gone down to a baptism In Yoengdo with one of our investigators which was really cool. Our investigator has known the missionaries ever since he was a little kid and that was the first baptism he has ever been to. And he said he really liked it. The person getting baptized was a members boyfriend and we also got to go to their wedding the next day. They just had it in the chapel and it was very simple. During the ceremony all the old ladies were preparing the food in the back of the room so it was really loud.

Elder haskell and I got kicked out of our house for two days for remodeling but our apartment looks really good now. Not too much else goin on around here. We are all excited to listen to general conference next week. And also next week is a big Korean holiday so we will be getting together as a mission. hope you all have a great week.

October 8, 2017

This week was good. It was general conference week and also a huge Korean holiday week. On Thursday every district in the mission was instructed to go to a museum in our areas. We also had to find certain people and take pictures with them.

On Wednesday the mission got together to do a huge sports day. We played soccer and did relay races. It was nice because it was like the first time I had run in a few months. Then we played one ball dodge ball which was pretty fun.

Elder Haskell and I just watched General Conference at the church by ourselves. Except for Wunday we watched it with the ward. Actually they watched it up stairs in Korean and we watched it downstairs by ourselves again.

Its always really cool to watch General Conference as a missionary. And also a lot easier to stay awake. Every thing here is going great. I hope you all have a great week.

October 15, 2017

Pretty interesting week. We met Iron Man again and he took us out for some lunch. He had to come check up on me and make sure I was doing my part as Black Panther.

Elder Haskell and I sat at the immigration office for like three hours to get our visa extended since we have been here for a year. I went well though. Except for when we tried to walk out the rotating doors and Elder Haskell got stuck in between and the whole building saw it.

Yesterday we had a social media meeting with the Busan youth and young single adults. They announced to all the missionaries that we will be getting smart phones in the next month or two so we were being trained on social media missionary work too. They had all the missionaries help the members but they knew how to work the phone a lot better than we do. It should be really helpful to get the smart phones since all of Korea runs off of them.

They taught us a new term yesterday at the meeting which is smombie, smart phone zombie. Which was funny because we get run into on the street about five times a day by smombies.

Hope ya'll have a great week.

Catching up: August 20 - September 17

Top of Lote Mall in Goejoeng

20 August

Another great week. Elder Stagg and I went on exchanges on Thursday with the Yeongdo elders. I went over to Yeongdo with Elder Becket. We planned to meet up at the Lote department store on Thursday morning. Elder Stagg and I got there a little early so we started walking around the store until they arrived. Then we heard someone yell,"Elders!" We turned around and saw a man with ripped up skinny jeans, a black v-neck, sunglasses, cross around his neck, and long shaggy hair sitting on a curb. We went over to talk to him and he explained to us that he is Yoengdo's recent convert and he is waiting for them to go to lunch. Elder Stagg and I talked to him until the other Elders showed up and we exchanged.

The man, Brother Park, took us to the top floor of Lote DS to a buffet. We had a good time with him and it turns out he used to be in a really well known band in Korea years ago. After we finished lunch and got in the elevator Mr Park started rockin' out on an air guitar, the whole fifteen floors.

Later that day we had another appointment with a group of kids that the Yeongdo Elders had met a day before and they had invited the Elders over for dinner. The group of kids turned out to be two brothers, their cousin, and the oldest brothers girlfriend who all lived together to go to school. When we walked into their apartment room it was tiny. it was like ten feet by ten feet but half the room was taken up by a big long table with three huge computers and gaming units set up where they play League of Legends and Overwatch together.

They were some of the nicest people I've ever met and were super funny. We had a good time with them and then we shared the Prince of Peace video with them and they really liked it and we set up another appointment.

During our meal with them we got several calls and texts for emergency drills. We have been working on our 72-hour kits the past few days and I hope nothing happens because I can't live on three packs of ramen for three days.

Celebrating one year as a missionary in South Korea

28 August

I am emailing a day late because we spent all of yesterday preparing for an event we are having on Saturday. So our president gave us an extra little p-day. Both the Busan and South Busan Zones are putting on an escape room/house for all of the youth and their friends in our areas. Its called the House of Laban and its super cheesy.

This week went by really fast. We have spent a lot of time looking for investigators because we only have a few and the ones that we do have are sort of... unique.

Last Tuesday, Elder Stagg and I were doing language study in our apartment when I heard the sound of a siren. I thought it was just our neighbors watching a movie or something so I didn't think much of it. But as the sound continued Elder Stagg and I looked up at each other at the same exact time. Then we both ran to the window. Our apartment is pretty sound proof and we have like three sets of windows, so when we slid all of them open we hear this loud siren going off through out the entire city. We both sat there for a little bit and then got our cameras because we didn't know what else to do. We totally thought that we were about to get bombs dropped on us. We weren't sure what to do. Then we got a call from our zone leaders which made us even more nervous. When we answered our zone leader sounded really panicked and was like, do you hear the sirens? where are you guys?! Are you in the bomb shelter?! the we were like, WHAT? NO! then he said, good because its just a drill.

That wasn't even the craziest thing that happened to me this week though. I think I had the weirdest experience of my whole mission on Saturday. It started with us getting a call from a man who claimed to be Iron Man and wanted to meet. He ended up being a Korean man from Argentina so he had a thick Spanish accent. He wore a huge microphone around his head wherever he went. He took us to this catholic sanctuary, where he lived, and where there was huge graves of catholic missionaries who had been beheaded. While we were there I became the Black Panther and Elder Stagg became Spider Man and we joined the "Mormon Avengers". Turns out he had already recruited other missionaries in our mission to the Mormon Avengers and he called them while we there to ask if we were fit for the job. He made it clear to us that the job would be dangerous and once we are Avengers we are Avengers for life. And he is also a scientist who is trying to prove the Bible right scientifically. We found out he got baptized last year but he told us that he is a "Mutated Mormon" because it is okay for him to smoke the pipe. After we joined the Avengers and he trained us, he took us back into town, taught us the secret hand shake and then disappeared.

And that's what a 'normal' day is like here. I feel like the only normal day we have is Sunday and even those get pretty weird.

One of the amazing guards in the escape room

3 September

Pretty crazy week. we spent most of it preparing for our stake youth activity. All the missionaries from the Busan Zones got together and put on a big escape room/building in the Kumjeong church. They had to get from point-a to point-b passing levels of puzzles and killing guards with their Nerf guns. The main goal was to kill Laban, find the gold plates, and escape with Zoram. It was super cheesy but the youth said they had a lot of fun. Elder Pak Insu and I were guards right at the begging of the maze. It was fun but really awkward when the Nerf guns malfunctioned and we stood there in an awkward silence and then just fell to the ground like we got shot.

On Wednesday our recent convert took Elder Stagg and I out to dinner down at Nampo. After that we went over to get ice cream at Baskin Robins. While we were eating the ice cream this tall guy with huge puffy hair came and sat at our table with us. He didn't say anything at first which was really awkward but then started speaking to us in English. turns out he was visiting from japan and didn't know any Korean so he asked us where he should go to visit. After we talked with him for about a half hour we found out that he is a member of our church and just got off his mission in japan. Our recent convert, Lee JunHo, tryed to explain to him where he should go for sight seeing. It was funny to watch a Korean guy and a Japanese guy try to communicate with each other in their very broken English. Then the Japanese guy asked if he could sleep at Lee JunHo's house and Lee JunHo said,"No I live with my parents."

It was getting late so Elder Stagg and I had to leave but Lee JunHo and the Japanese guy went to go get something to eat together. When Elder Stagg and I got home we get a call from Lee JunHo and all he said was," Elders, the Japanese guy is sleeping at my house, okay bye."

We are meeting with this old man named Yoo JeYoung. We really likes our church but he has some very interesting beliefs. He loves to start teaching us about random things in the middle of our lessons so they tend to be pretty long. Last time he taught Elder Stagg and I how to punch correctly if we ever get in a street fight back in America. I thought he was gonna have a heart attack in our church.

The work is going well here, I hope you guys all have a great week.

Typical meal for us here in Korea

10 September

I'm sitting in the Samsung Service Center and the guy next to me smells like dead fish... but anyway not too much happened this week. We are down to only one actual investigator so we have just been doing a lot of finding. Finding is like the biggest problem in our mission. People just don't have too much interest. So President Jeong has advised us to come up with creative ways to proselyte.

We have tried a lot and most of them have been fails. Elder Stagg and I made a board to invite people to English class. It had a big spin wheel on it with some questions but when we went out on the streets to use it someone spun it and the wheel just broke off and fell to the floor. it was super awkward.

Last night us and the sisters went down to the beach to try to do "song proselyting." It was a fail. Elder Wtagg and I have ukulele's but we don't know how to play them. but we did anyways. We "played" the ukuleles while the sisters sang. eventually we put the ukes down and just sang but I don't know if that was much better. We got a few people to stop and talk to us and a few drunk guys to be our audience for a little but besides that nothing. We are going to try again next Sunday but as a district.

Nothing much else going on here. A few more warnings about north Korea and we have heard a lot about the storms in the US. All Koreans feel they need to tell us about it since we are American. We also saw a news article with a picture of our old mission president, president barrow, on his air boat helping people out in Texas.

The work is going great here. Everyone be safe and I hope you all have a great week. may the odds be ever in you favor.

Chillin at Lote Mall again

September 17

This was the last week of the transfer calls. Elder Stagg got called to Yoengdo which is just the next area over so we will still be in the same district. I will be stay in Goejoeng and my companion is the one and only Elder Haskell.

On Thursday we had mission tour with Elder Yamashita from the Seventy. Him and his wife both came down to speak to us. After that I went straight up to Yoengdo to go on exchange with Elder Avilla. We met with their investigator who's wife and kids are actually living in Provo, Utah.

The next morning we went and played soccer with a bunch of 40 year old guys and got wrecked. Mostly because we ran from the house to the field which is on the top of a massive hill. Then I went back in time for Goejoeng English class.

In our English class we only have two people come and they are both old ladies. The sisters teach one in basic and Elder Stagg and I teach the other. At the end of our lesson we were talking about food and we asked if she liked McDonald's and she replied, "I love make donuts, I make donuts all the time at my house." Then she promised to bring us home made donuts next but Elder Stagg and I were laughing so hard we couldn't reply.

Last night we did our district singing proselyting down at Nampo. It was really hard but pretty fun. Elder stagg had to pass out flyers while the other missionaries sang because we cant.

Besides that nothin much else goin on. Im pretty pumped for next transfer. Its going to be a very interesting one with Haskell. But we are hopin to get a lot done.

August 6 and 13 updates

August 6th

My last time with my best buddies in Hogye

I have just been transferred back to Busan but this time its South Busan Zone. I was pretty bummed to have to leave Hogye but I'm excited to serve in 괴정. And my comp is one of my best friends from the MTC so its gonna be really fun.

My last week in Hogye was awesome. On Wednesday night we went with our investigator down town to go play some basketball. We played a bunch of pick up games and won all except for one. Our friend that we went with was probably the best one there. The courts filled up once the sun went down and fortunately I didn't look to bad because they were all Korean, and because I dunked it (the rim definitely wasn't ten feet but I don't think anyone knew that).

Our youth all had youth conference this week so we didn't see them too much but we got to say by to them at church yesterday. They all got up and bore their testimony which was really cool. Every one of them broke down into tears and it was really spiritual, but then the crazy old man got up after them and rambled on about some "doctrine" that I've never heard of before and killed the vibe. classic fast and testimony meeting.

Second hour we just listened to the branch president talk about his trip to utah and about how amazing the bishops store house is. That was literally one of the reasons he went to utah.
After church we said our good-byes and went home to pack until it was time to go to dinner at the branch presidents house where we got to hear all about the bishop's storehouse again. The home teachers also came with us and shared the message at the end which was weird not having to do it.

It was really sad leaving Hogye but I am excited to meet some more amazing people in my new area. I have been in korea for a good while now but I still feel like a greenie, hopefully that will change before I go home.
D&C 93

August 13th

Me and Elder Stagg on the top of the mall

Was a pretty crazy week in ??. It is a lot easier to switch areas and get to know the ward when you can speak the language a little. Every time we get transferred to a new area we have to get an introduction talk in sacrament meeting. I learned that in my new ward I will be giving a talk every other week. yay!

Yesterday, before I gave my intro talk, the first counselor got up to conduct and said, "We will first be hearing a talk from our new missionary, Elder Maki, from South America," and everyone was like, woah. When I got up I said, I really like the name Maki but my real name is Elder Matua and I'm from Lehi, Utah and everyone started busting up.

On Saturday we had our weekly English class but we didn't have a very good turn out. about half way through the class we get a call from a kid asking if him and his friends could come to class. we said yes and a few minutes later three high school kids walked in. apparently they saw the banner outside and thought they would try it out. they were pretty funny but all the English they knew was swear words from TV and league of legends so we had a lot of teaching to do.

After the class we we had planned to go play soccer of at the junior high so we invited our three new friends to come with us. They told us that they were planning to go play soccer at the same exact place at the same time, so we all went together.

They told us that their high school had challenged another high school to a game of soccer. When we got there, there was about 60 or more kids warming up to play soccer. right when we got close to the field our three new friends started shouting to everyone, "Aye we got some American friends! look at us!!" The entire field went silent and everyone stop and stared at us as we walked in. It was super awkward but pretty funny. After a few minutes we noticed that the Deshin Elders were already there and were watching us the whole time. They walked up to us and were like, that was quite an entrance. They split up the elders between the two teams and we played until it was too dark to see. After the games we got a bunch of the kids contacts and a few of them said they would meet with us next week.

It is gonna be a really interesting transfer but every day is interesting here.

#thechurchistrue

Last time with the best Zone in Hogye

Updates: July 23rd and 30th

July 23rd

One of my little homies who comes to church alone

This week went by really fast. I had two exchanges in a row and they were both in the same area. It was down in 신정, which is so terrible at night because their A/C broke. So we all slept around one little fan. On the first exchange I got to go to 신정's English class. I met this guy named Yoon HeDuck who is sort of a legend to the missionaries here. He is a little bit special but he has a crazy good memory. He remembers every missionary he's ever met and where they're from, their full name and when they go home. When he met me and I told him I was from Lehi he told me all the missionaries he's met from Lehi and around it. Then he asked what my full name is and I said, Mica Nu'ualiitia Matua. And he said, oh Mica Nice-To-Meet-You Matua.

On Saturday we played ping pong with our investigator who is 13 and got wrecked. But it was good because he brought his two friends who are twins. It was impossible to tell them apart. After we played ping pong we taught a lesson to our investigator and his friends wanted to sit in. It went really well and hopefully we can get them back for more.

The brothers who come alone

Our Branch president is still in Lehi for another two weeks. He ran a lot of the stuff over here so its been pretty busy without him but I think we'll make it two more weeks.

My comp leaves in two weeks and yeah I love serving in Hogye. We almost had dog soup with our ward mission leader on Wednesday but the restaurant was closed.

July 30th

It was a pretty crazy week. Last Monday we went to a massive Buddhist temple which was pretty cool until it started pouring rain and we had to ride a bus back that was packed full of French people.

Visiting a massive Buddhist temple

On Thursday the young men had a "camp out." They just slept at the church. But it was good because they invited us to come eat dinner with them. Then on Saturday we had our weekly soccer with our little homies. The cool thing was that our two young men that usually come couldn't make it but all of their non-member friends still showed up to play with the missionaries. We had 25 people come out which is a new record. and out of that 25 we only had 9 members and the rest were non-member high school kids. Five of them drove 45-minutes from a different city with the Bongojin elders.

Unfortunately when we got to the field it was all taped off because they were redoing the track. But there was another school about ten minutes away so we all walked to it. When we got there we realized that that field was also taped off and being redone. The next closest field was on the other side of town so we had to take a bus. When we got to the bus stop, the bus we needed to take was just driving away, but when it got about 100-yards away it had to stop at a red light and we all took off running to catch it. We got there just as the light turned green and started slapping the side of the bus and it luckily stopped. We had finally arrived at the field when we noticed that it too had been taped off, but the track seemed to be dry so we got on and started playing. After about two minutes this old "guard" man came and kicked us off. We were on a compound of about five schools with three fields so tried all three but the other two were currently being worked on. and the old guy followed us around yelling at us, telling us that we would not be able to step foot on the fields until next week.

We were in the worst situation. We had 25 people, most of which were non members, no where to play and it was getting late. We sat there for about 15-minutes not knowing what to do. Then got all our stuff and started walking away when one of the construction workers called us over and asked, Where is your leader? Elder Kim TeHoon volunteered and had a conversation with the other workers. They told us to wait until the old man left and we could play on the field as long as we were careful of the track.

Good times visiting Buddha

We thanked the construction workers about a thousand times and then started playing. It was a huge miracle. All the boys had a lot of fun and the ones from Bongojin told us they want to come again next week.

We have one week left in the transfer. It will be probably the most interesting transfer yet since we have 19 missionaries leaving including my companion. It'll be crazy and I hope everyone back home has a great week.

Alma 29:8-9

Two updates in one - Goodbye President Barrow

Dinner with Ward Mission Leader

Yesterday we got to go to president Barrows farewell for the Ulsan stake. We get a new mission president in two weeks. He is a Korean guy from Seoul. A lot of the missionaries know because they are from the same ward and he is the father of one of the sisters in our mission.

Last week we had a stake sports day which was really fun. We had a soccer tournament and our ward won. We got all of the kids that play with us every Saturday to come which was cool since they are almost all non members. Yesterday we met with one of our investigators who brought four of his friends and we are now teaching one of them who lived in Texas as an exchange student.

One of our investigators runs an English academy and we met with him on Thursday. He was really busy so we sat there for a while. But the whole time we were waiting we were talking to this kid and teaching him English, and about our church. English is actually a big way we find people. Besides that nothing much else going on.

#thechurchistrue

Laughs with little Giungmin

Elder Profitt couldn't hang

2nd Update

Sweet az ride

Anther crazy week in 한국. On Tuesday I went on an exchange with elder Youngblood over here in Hogye. Our plan was to un-exchange Wednesday morning at zone conference since we were having it at our chapel here in Hoyge. But on Wednesday morning, when we woke up and started showering we get a call from the zone leaders telling us to get our 72-hour kits and our passports and head to the mission office. We were really surprised for the change of plans since we live 3-hours from the mission home, but we got our stuff together and hoped on a train. When we got there the whole mission was gathered. We ended up having a huge mission conference for President Barrow's farewell. It was really good to see all the missionaries that I haven't seen in months.

President Barrow instructed us to start doing companionship and language study outside, at the library or in a cafe so we can be around the people more. It has worked out really good. We have already met several people just while studying. We have had a few people just walk up to us in the library and ask if we teach an English class, which we do. a little bit racist but its chill.

We had a little boy get baptized on Friday since he just turned 8. There was some drama between some of the family members and some of them ended up leaving but it still turned out to be an awesome baptism.

I hope everyone is doing good back home.

#예수그리스도 후기 성도 교회


Love you all,
Elder Mica Matua

Visiting one of many Buddhist temples here

Korea-Busan Missionaries farewell President Barrow

Another week in Hogye

Exploring and climbing The Dragon
King rocks in Hogye

This week was pretty neat. A lot of nature around these parts... but anyways it was a good week.

We haven't really been able to meet most of our investigators because they have all been "busy" but that's just the Korean life style. But we did meet a really cool kid who is 22 and loves the NBA. We played basketball with him and the whole time he ran around yelling, Lebron! or Curry! in his Korean accent every time he shot or dribbled the ball. He just finished military service and said he wants to starts meeting with us.

Up here in Hogye its just a branch but the members are awesome. We just got assigned to teach the primary once a month and we still do a lot with the young men. Tomorrow we have a stake sports day where we are going to go smash all the other wards in soccer.

Besides that the mission life is going good. Hogye is awesome, the church is true.

Mosiah 2:21


Love,
Elder Mica Matua

My Korean style kicks

Exploring with the Elders from the pad

Pausing for a photo op

Some random Inca street performers

Visiting a Buddhist temple

Flat mate Elder Jaebok

Hogye is awesome

Adventures with Sister Kim

Elder Oh - heading home

We had a really great first week of the transfer. We spent the first two days contacting hundreds of people in the area and were able to meet a few people from it. We met with a man who owns a seafood restaurant by the church who I see all the time who turned out to be a former investigator. He was really nice but he told us that if we were trying to convert him to our religion then we are wasting our time. But we stayed and taught him a lesson and bore testimony.

Last night we were walking home and as we were waiting at a light in front of McDonald's this man approached us from behind. When I turned around I recognized him immediately. It was one of the McDonalds workers that we see every week, since Steve takes us to McDonald's a lot. We started talking and then eventually found out that he had been baptized in our church. We had no idea. We got his number and are going to meet with him next week.

Earlier this week we got a call from the grandma of the Yeonsan ward inviting us over for lunch. She told us which bus to ride to get to her house but when we got to the stop we didn't know which direction to take so we caught a taxi. When we got in the taxi we called sister Kim and handed the phone to the driver. Then you just hear her yelling at him, "I told them to take the bus." The driver had a hard time understanding her because her Busan accent is so thick but we eventually made it to her house. When we got close we just see an old lady in a bright yellow rain coat waving down our taxi and it ended up being sister Kim. We were at the bottom of a mountain. We walked about a half a mile strait up the steepest hill I have ever climbed with sister Kim. She is 86 years old and just power walked strait up the mountain like a beast.

When we got there she fed us so much food. Her husband died many years ago and her kids are all moved out so she lives alone. She is such an amazing member. She got baptized 40 years ago after her son joined the Church and now has been a strong member ever since. We shared a message with her and then said a prayer and when we were about to leave she said, 'I need to go to the market so I will walk down with you guys.' As we walked out of the apartment there were two old ladies standing outside and they asked her where she was going and she yelled, 'the market,' but as we were walking away me and Elder Aurich heard them say, she is always with foreigners, they didn't know we speak Korean. As we walked down the mountain we kept passing old ladies and Sister Kim would randomly say to them, 'We are going to the market.' They would reply, 'together?' And Sister Kim would say, 'You bet!' it was pretty funny. Then she waited at the bus stop with us and yelled at the bus driver to make sure we got to the right place.

General Conference was awesome this past week. I think it was the first time I didn't fall asleep throughout the whole thing. Being a missionary, listening to the words of the prophets is very different. It is really cool hearing the testimonies of people who have so much experience in the gospel. #thechurchistrue #PrinceofPeace.


Love you guys
Elder Mica Matua

Made it to Sister Kim's house

Hiking with Sister Kim